Great Eastern eyes wealth business and longevity as focus areas in Singapore

SINGAPORE -  Great Eastern is raring for a fresh start, after resuming trading on the Singapore stock exchange on Aug 21, with the life insurer’s chief executive highlighting ways to unlock more value during an event to mark its refreshed corporate logo.

Two abseilers descended the facade of the Great Eastern Building at One Pickering Street on the morning of Aug 26, unveiling the new logo, which features a redesigned lion motif and an updated tagline, “An OCBC Company”.

A lion dance performance followed, signifying new beginnings under group chief executive officer Greg Hingston, who took the helm on Nov 1, 2024.

Speaking to the media, he highlighted two trends that he sees as important for the insurer – wealth creation and inter-generational wealth transfer; and an ageing population and growing longevity risks.

On the wealth creation trend, Mr Hingston said Great Eastern, which is strong in the mass market and affluent segment, has the opportunity to go further up the value chain into the high-net-worth market.

There is a “huge value unlock” that has not been addressed, he noted, adding that the strategy is to leverage OCBC’s “One Group” network to realise these synergies.

Bank of Singapore is the private bank, while OCBC is the retail and commercial bank within this network. 

Bank of Singapore serves high-net-worth individuals, while OCBC Premier Private Client targets the affluent individuals who deposit or invest at least $1.5 million and who qualify as accredited investors.

“We can look at new product development,” Mr Hingston said, as he highlighted opportunities to bring banking products and services into insurance.

For example, Great Eastern can develop an insurance product that has a discretionary portfolio management component to it, he noted.

Professional portfolio managers from the Bank of Singapore will manage the fund that is tied to this insurance product.

The collaboration with Bank of Singapore is “very embryonic”, he said, and both parties are currently engaged in discussions to see how they can work together.

Mr Hingston said: “There is a lot more that we can do with the Bank of Singapore, which includes how we use their products and services to enhance our own proposition.”

Ultimately, the insurer aims to offer a complete range of insurance and investment solutions to customers.

Touching on the second trend around ageing populations and the associated longevity risks, Mr Hingston said Great Eastern is ensuring that it builds a sustainable health business.

Longevity risks refer to the possibility that an individual lives longer than expected, which in turn presents challenges that he outlives his retirement savings or that age-related health issues increase, pushing up healthcare costs.

The insurer has a medical care concierge service, which guides consumers through the process of knowing what they are entitled to under their policy, which healthcare provider to choose, and how much they may have to incur out of pocket.

This allows customers to make informed decisions about their treatment options, he added. 

Great Eastern was one of three health insurers to post an underwriting profit in 2024, the other two being Prudential and AIA.

It had an underwriting profit of $4.8 million in 2024, reversing from a loss of $44.9 million in 2023.

Mr Hingston added that Great Eastern brought its medical claims management system in-house two months ago, in another attempt to manage healthcare costs.

It is an internally built solution that is driven by artificial intelligence (AI), he said. 

With this claims system, the insurer now has a “higher percentage of straight-through claims”, or insurance claims that are processed automatically from submission to payout.

According to data on the Ministry of Health website, Great Eastern is the fastest among the seven health insurers, achieving same-day turnaround for 75 per cent of submitted medical claims.

Mr Hingston said the AI system will speed up the claims process further for clients. 

He has committed to deepen engagement and provide tailored solutions to customers as one of Great Eastern’s strategic growth priorities.

The insurer’s two other strategic growth priorities are centred on empowering financial advisers to do their jobs better with the use of technology and building a future-ready workforce.

To that end, Great Eastern is piloting an integrated AI solution that transforms the way financial representatives engage with customers.

This will cut the time advisers take to prepare for a client meeting from two hours to half an hour and save half a million man-hours in the process.

The insurer is also harnessing AI in work processes to enhance productivity and build a future-ready workforce.

“This latest chapter will prepare us for the opportunities ahead,” Mr Hingston said.

The 117-year-old insurer has been suspended from trading on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since July 15, 2024, after its public float fell below the 10 per cent minimum, following a failed takeover bid from OCBC.

It

resumed trading on SGX on Aug 21

after shareholders voted against delisting the firm on July 8 and a subsequent bonus issue restored the insurer’s minimum free float requirement.

The shares closed at $13.79 on Aug 26, up 2.1 per cent from its closing price of $13.50 on Aug 21.